We have had two years of the will-he-or-won’t-he questions about whether William Saliba will be returning to Arsenal to continue his blossoming career, or (as he has said himself) he would stay with Marseille and play for the Ligue 1 runners-up in the Champions League next season, and cement his place in the France setup ahead of the World Cup later this year.
Well now he has come back to Arsenal and performed magnificently in our tour games in the USA, and there were murmurs that a contract extension had been previously verbally agreed, with talks with Arteta and Sailba’s agent planned for this week.
But now Fabrizio Romano has reported this intrigung bit of information. He tweeted….
This raises many interesting questions and no answers, like if Saliba was going to stay with Arsenal, why would Marseille’s boss even be still interested in Saliba or involved in talks?
Now there was one thing that Saliba said last month when he was on his way back to join the Gunners. “I belong to Arsenal – and I still have two years there,” Saliba said in June. “I will be there for pre-season with Arsenal. I have played zero matches with Arsenal and I want to show them what I’m made of and have the chance to play for the supporters and for this big club.”
He says he will be with us for pre-season, no mention of staying unconditionally…..
Let me put my theory forward. We know Saliba is desperate to go to the World Cup with France, so wants to play every week until then. So, perhaps Arsenal are thinking: ‘Let’s get him to sign a contract extension to maintain his transfer value, then allow him to go back to Marseille until Xmas (or maybe the whole season again) and get his wish to play at the World Cup.’
Could that be possible?
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